title: Occupational stress among healthcare workers in Japan.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  High distress levels in healthcare workers in Japan may deteriorate safe service provision.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To clarify job stress of healthcare workers, we compared Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (BJSQ) scores among physicians, nursing staff and administrative workers.
  
  
  METHODS
  Healthcare workers (n=9,137) in 20 hospitals in Japan were asked to answer BJSQ. BJSQ is job stress questionnaire to measure "Job Stressors", "Stress Responses" and "Social Supports".
  
  
  RESULTS
  The "Total Health Risk" of the healthcare workers was 10% higher than the national average. While the physicians felt the stress of the quantitative and qualitative job overload, they had support from supervisors and coworkers and showed mild "Stress Responses". The nursing staff felt the stress of the quantitative and qualitative job overload at the same level as the physicians, but they did not have sufficient support from supervisors and coworkers, and showed high "Stress Responses". The administrative workers did not have sufficient support from supervisors and coworkers, but they experienced less stress as measured by the quantitative and qualitative job overload than the physicians or the nursing staff and showed moderate "Stress Responses".
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Further studies are needed to clarify the mechanisms and the influence of other factors to the stress trait in healthcare workers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine, Toho University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Shinya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine, Toho University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Shigeru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fujita
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine, Toho University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Kanako
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Seto
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine, Toho University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Takefumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kitazawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine, Toho University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Kunichika
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine, Toho University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomonori
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hasegawa
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008875:Middle Aged; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000592:standards*; D012944:Social Support; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications* / Q000209:etiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (BJSQ); healthcare worker; job stress; occupational health; stress